Real Madrid Raises Soccer Trophy For the Fifth Time

Real Madrid have become the world champion soccer club for the fifth time in their history by beating Kashima Antlers 4-2 in extra time thanks mainly to a triplet from their star Cristiano Ronaldo on Sunday in Yokohama, Japan.

The European champions were ahead with a goal from Karim Benzema (9), but Kashima turned the tides with two goals from Goku Shibasaki (44 and 52), before Ronaldo, chosen the best player of the match, equalized (60) in extra time.

Real Madrid dominated during many phases of the match and believed to have the victory when Benzema overtook the whites in the 9th minute, but the Spanish team failed having many chances to recapture the lead and did not llowed the Japanese to get into the game. Madrid team were set to surprise and achieve a historic victory, with several clear goals in the minutes before overtime, where the Costa Rican goalkeeper Keylor Navas saved his team with several decisive stops.

With this new title, Real Madrid becomes the first club to raise the trophy of world champion five times, after the Intercontinental Cups of 1960, 1998 and 2002 and the World Cup achieved two years ago in Morocco.

Modric of the Madrid Soccer team receives ‘silver ball’ for being the second best player of the tournament. Photo/Reuters pic.twitter.com/OflRuXsFpL

“The Kashima Antlers were brilliant, as were their tireless fans, and gave Real Madrid a real scare. They might have got more had the referee gone through with his initial reaction when it seemed Sergio Ramos might be sent off, and had Yuma buried his header in extra-time we might now be in a penalty shootout. But Ronaldo did what Ronaldo does so well and Madrid have secured their second Club World Cup in three years”. said TheGuardian corespondent.